We got news late last night that we will be moved to second case of the day so surgery will be moved to later in the morning depending on how long the first case takes. It was a bit startling, but we figured the upside is that it will give us more time to squeeze him! It also allowed us to get to know our nurse for the day and she brought great peace to our morning when we heard her singing to the songs we had playing on the christian radio station in our room. God was with all of us that morning.
4:00 AM Titus had his last blood draws for pre-surgery labs and also got his pre-surgery bath with chloro-hexadine.
8:00 AM They surprised us with news that the surgeon was requesting Ty have a PICC line placed before the surgery. This will allow a centrally located intravenous access for a long period of time to deliver TPN, meds, antibiotics, etc. It took over an hour for them to place it which sadly ate up quite a bit of our snuggle time BUT as soon as they were done I scooped Titus up and held him for about an hour or so until the transport team arrived and we walked with him to the OR.
11:10 AM We walked Titus to the double doors, said a prayer over him, and then entered our private waiting room to wait for hourly updates.
12:07 PM Got a call from the OR nurse that Ty was fully prepped and surgery would begin in a few minutes. More prayers....
1:00 PM Fire alarms went off on our floor. Talk about freaking a momma out!! There was a small fire somewhere else on our floor and it was put out quickly.
2:37 PM Got the call that Titus is off of the bypass machine and they are double checking for bleeding before sewing his chest up.(!) This is great news as some babies cannot have their chest sewn up for a couple days due to swelling...he apparently has tolerated everything very well.
3:10 PM He is sewn up and now headed back to the CICU to get settled in. HALLELUJAH! Praise the Lord!
3:32 The surgeon came in and told us that the surgery went very well. He was actually very casual about it, talking as if he had just went in and replaced an exhaust pipe on a car or something! He mentioned that Titus went on bypass just fine, they took a look at the anatomy of the heart and as the CT scan showed there were no surprises. They cut his PDA out and placed the gore-tex tube between his aorta and pulmonary arteries. They also took a good look at the pulmonary arteries while in there as well and determined that right artery was large enough but the left one needed to be widened for adequate blood flow to his lungs. So they patched it by cutting it open and then sealing it with a donated human artery that will allow growth over time.We sat there hearing the news and waited for the BUT...but it never came! We could not have asked for a smoother surgery and are very grateful for the team taking care of Titus.
4:00 We headed back to the CICU waiting room and anxiously waited for the staff to give us the okay to see our little man. We actually were lucky enough to sneak a peek at him as they were bringing him back down the hall...just perfect timing!
5:37 Ty was fully set up in his room and we were finally allowed to go in...
This was actually where I thought tears, emotions, sadness, confusion, etc. would overcome me as a mom...however I was pleasantly surprised to not shed a single tear...While pregnant I spent a lot of time on blogs and FB pages of other heart babies to educate myself as well as desensitize myself to what we would be facing. I am very glad that I did because it was not easy to see him after surgery, but honestly, we had prepared ourselves for much worse so this was a relief! We actually smiled and rejoiced at how good he looked considering what he just endured. God has an amazing way of comforting us in times when peace is far from being found on our own....
WARNING: If you are sensitive, you may want to skip the photos below....
Lots of monitoring....
Swelling from surgery and excess fluids...very normal and we expected worse.
Fully sedated and paralyzed so he doesn't rip off any lines.
They will keep him fully sedated and closely monitored overnight and if he is stable, then they will see how he tolerates a couple adjustments....prayers for a quick and uneventful recovery!
Praying for you guys and your sweet TItus.
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